Poly(oxyalkylene) compounds including poly(oxyethylenes), poly(oxypropylenes) and copolymers thereof have many and diverse industrial uses such as treatments for metals, paper, textiles and the like. However, when used in textile and carpet applications, for example, the poly(oxyalkylene) compounds are readily removed from the surface of the substrate materials during the various treatments employed and its effectiveness is, thus, reduced. There is a need, therefore, for modified poly(oxyalkylene) compounds which possess many or all of the properties of the unmodified compounds plus new or improved physical and/or chemical properties such as, for example, providing a more durable coating.
Techniques for producing copolymers by grafting olefins onto other polymers such as poly(oxyalkylene) polymers are, in general, well known. However, the resultant graft copolymers are not crosslinkable, are generally not substantive to surfaces, and are often seriously contaminated with by-products, one common contaminant being homopolymers of the monomer used in the graft polymerization reaction.
A process for preparing graft copolymers of poly(oxyalkylene) compounds with a wide variety of olefins which is reported to substantially reduce the formation of insoluble homopolymer by-products and produce products having improved and/or modified properties is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,418,354 to Wheeler, Jr. The method disclosed by the patentee generally involves preparing a mixture of an olefin and a catalytic amount of a peroxide containing a peroxide group linked to a tertiary carbon atom and slowly adding said mixture to a poly(oxyalkylene) compound which is maintained at a temperature high enough to cause the grafting reaction to occur. A wide variety of olefinic compounds are suggested as being applicable for use in the grafting reaction of the invention including organic olefins such as styrene, acrylonitrile, alkyl acrylates, and the like. However, none of the graft copolymers of poly(oxyalkene) compounds disclosed are known to significantly enhance the retentivity thereof to substrates such as textile materials and none of the materials disclosed form graft copolymers which are crosslinkable.
Further, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,546,321 to Vandenberg et al. is also disclosed a method for preparing graft copolymers of polyether polymers and monomers containing ethylene unsaturation. In the process of the invention, polyether polymers having a hydrogen attached to a carbon atom alpha to an ether oxygen in the polymer backbone are first contacted with oxygen in the presence of an initiator agent to form the hydroperoxide thereof. Graft copolymers are then prepared from the polyether hydroperoxides by polymerizing one or more vinylidine or vinyl monomers by free radical mechanism at free radical sites on the polyether main chain created by decomposition of the hydroperoxy groups. While the process of the patent is shown to prepare graft copolymers of polyether polymers, it requires a two stage process which may be more complex than desired for a number of applications and none of the graft copolymers disclosed would be crosslinkable.